Malaysian Securities Research Articles

The Effect of Privacy Concerns on the Purchasing Behavior among Malaysian Smartphone Users

The rise of e-commerce and m-commerce has brought the intention to the privacy concerns among mobile buyers, and studies showed that it is an important factor that affect attitude and intention to buy products or services through smartphones. The objective of this paper is to investigate the issue of privacy concerns on the attitude and purchasing intention among Malaysian smartphone users. This was performed by investigating the relationships between privacy concerns and attitude towards purchase, as well as between the privacy concerns and the intention to purchase using smartphone apps. The paper provides significant insights on the issue of privacy concerns in the usage of smartphones which can help developers such as Google and Apple to improve their apps stores to provide better protection for users' privacy and security in Malaysia.

Old Threats, New Approach and National Security in Malaysia: Issues and Challenges in Dealing With Cross-border Crime in East Coast of Sabah

For centuries there has been the free movement of people and goods across North Borneo to its neighbouring countries, primarily Indonesia and Philippines. However, when Sabah gained independence through the formation of Malaysian in 1963, such activities which were previously considered legal, are now labeled as smuggling and illegal entry, and are thus an existential security threat to Malaysia. Porous and an extremely long border have made it difficult for the state to address the rise of these incidents. The intrusion of Sabah by members of so-called the Royal Sulu Army in 2013 was the last straw. The incident drove the government to establish a civil-military command known as Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM). It was an organization under which all enforcement agencies such as police, army, immigration, marine, coast guard etc, will be coordinated under one command system. The objective of this study is to identify the measures and challenges for ESSCOM and Malaysian government in dealing with Sabah’s East Coast of maritime security. The review will be mainly focused on the nature of the threat, the reasons for the ESSCOM establishment and policy measures taken to strengthen Sabah’s maritime security. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n3s1p178

Good Governance and Human Security in Malaysia: Sarawak's Hydroelectric Conundrum

Good governance is an essentially contested concept. In Asian countries, economic efficiency and macro-economic projects have predominantly been pursued with the aim of promoting national, aggregate measurements of development. Hydroelectric power generation projects have played a central role in the national planning of several regional states as part of an attempt to achieve these goals. Even by their own terms of reference, however, hydroelectric power projects have at most a mixed record of success, and are increasingly criticized with regard to their negative impact on the environment, and upon vulnerable groups. The government of Malaysia has embraced the “developmental state” model, and this is best illustrated by governance initiatives and resource exploitation in the East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah and their respective “development corridors”. Sarawak’s Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) is the most visible sign of Malaysia’s macro-economic hydroelectric development focus, as Sabah’s corridor focuses on trade, investment, and tourism. This article takes a critical perspective towards good governance, emphasizing that it should function in the interests of all society, but in particular the most vulnerable. It therefore addresses the impact of Malaysian hydroelectric development policies on one of the most vulnerable sections of Malaysian society, the indigenous peoples of Sarawak. The findings cast doubt on the validity of continued prioritization of hydroelectric dam construction as a cornerstone of government energy and development policy.

Social Security in Malaysia: Stock-Take on Players, Availablec Products and Databases

The main aim of this article is to provide an overview of social security in Malaysia. The focus is on relevant services, players and databases in the country. The development of social security in Malaysia is captured in Malaysia’s Five Year Development plans with a twin goal of achieving good growth and equitable development. Hence, social security policies in the more recent development plans were part of the distribution policies. The study uses the ILO’s three-dimensional approach to social protection as a benchmark for analysis. The first dimension refers to the proactive measures to provide social assistance to the non-productive and productive groups in society by ensuring access to basic essential goods and services. The basic protection floor has improved over the years with programmes targeted at equitable development and inclusive growth as seen in the NEM and the 10th MP. The second dimension refers to the social insurance system to prevent or at least mitigate the impact of risks borne by society. The four main schemes such as pension for civil servants, the LTAT, the EPF, and SOCSO have contributed to a relatively higher score forMalaysia (same income group), in the Social Protection Index (SPI) introduced by the ADB (2003). However, post-1997 Asian Financial Crisis saw social security policies beginning to incorporate labour market programmes, the third dimension of the ILO’s framework which aims at promoting the potentials and opportunities for individuals to contribute positively to society. Several agencies that are accountable to different authorities are responsible for the programmes. Yet, there is no effective coordination; in other words, no supreme body to oversee the products of social security and to link them all to meet the national framework and policy. The absence of an overarching social policy is not helping either. All social protection service providers and government agencies collect data and information in order to support their own programmes. As a result, the single-user data collection remains isolated with no mega-database as an interface among social securityproviders.

Good Governance and Human Security in Malaysia: Sarawak’s Hydroelectric Conundrum

Good governance is an essentially contested concept. In Asian countries, economic efficiency and macro-economic projects have predominantly been pursued with the aim of promoting national, aggregate measurements of development. Hydroelectric power generation projects have played a central role in the national planning of several regional states as part of an attempt to achieve these goals. Even by their own terms of reference, however, hydroelectric power projects have at most a mixed record of success, and are increasingly criticized with regard to their negative impact on the environment, and upon vulnerable groups. The government of Malaysia has embraced the “developmental state” model, and this is best illustrated by governance initiatives and resource exploitation in the East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah and their respective “development corridors”. Sarawak’s Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) is the most visible sign of Malaysia’s macro-economic hydroelectric development focus, as Sabah’s corridor focuses on trade, investment, and tourism. This article takes a critical perspective towards good governance, emphasizing that it should function in the interests of all society, but in particular the most vulnerable. It therefore addresses the impact of Malaysian hydroelectric development policies on one of the most vulnerable sections of Malaysian society, the indigenous peoples of Sarawak. The findings cast doubt on the validity of continued prioritization of hydroelectric dam construction as a cornerstone of government energy and development policy.

Urban Agriculture: A Way Forward to Food and Nutrition Security in Malaysia

The practice of urban agriculture has gained importance due to the rising rate of urban poverty and population in the developing regions. In countries such as Malaysia, it also addresses food security by providing the urban dwellers with access to adequately nutritious, safe, acceptable and cost-effective food. While there are some skepticism toward urban agricultural activities in providing food for the urban markets, this study has nevertheless explored the existing evidence of its effectiveness in providing food security among urban dwellers and consequently reducing a large share of their food bills. Interviews of 360 households shown a positive statistical association between obtaining a sufficient quantity of food and adequate diet through engagement in urban agriculture.The results from this study indicate that food security can be derived from urban agriculture since it provides sufficient quantities of food, appropriate nutrition, cost-effective food supplies and reduction in food bills. This highlights the need for the Malaysian urban authorities to give more appropriate recognition and contribution to city dwellers and encourage them to expand the practice of urban agriculture.

Book Review Human Security in Malaysia and Indonesia: From Trafficking to Global Warming (Malay Version)

Book Review Human Security in Malaysia and Indonesia: From Trafficking to Global Warming (Malay Version)

Facilitating The Investigation of Information Security Cases By Using Evaluation Matrix

This paper intends to propose the construction of an evaluation matrix as a tool to facilitate the investigation of information security cases. In this paper, the components of the evaluation matrix are introduced and explained. This paper has been divided into four different parts. The first part explains the background information on information security in Malaysia why the research questions will be explained in the second part of the paper. The paper continues to illustrate the origins of the proposed evaluation matrix in part three. The final embraces the importance of using the evaluation matrix to facilitate the existing method in the investigation of information security cases.

Board of Director's Attributes as Deterrence to Corporate Fraud

Abstract Good corporate governance serves a great shield for the company to counter corporate fraud. Several attributes create good corporate governance and one of them is the board of directors. This paper examines the influence of board size, board meeting and board duality in deterring corporate fraud on 99 fraudulent companies listed under the Malaysian Securities Commission enforcement action for criminal prosecution or civil action regarding corporate fraud. These companies are then matched with another 99 non-fraudulent public listed companies in Bursa Malaysia. This study covered a period of ten (10) years, from the year 2000 until 2010. The panel data of ten (10) years was used to provide a stronger suggestion of causality via natural examination and subsequently, would provide better evidence from the analysis of board of director's attributes. Binary logistic regression analysis is used to analyse the data obtained. The result shows that there is a significant influence between the frequency of board meetings and corporate fraud. However, there is no significant influence between board size and board duality toward corporate fraud. This study concluded that in Malaysia the frequency of board meetings can be used as a method to deter corporate fraud. The findings will contribute to enhance the existing corporate governance policy in Malaysia to foster the achievement of zero corporate fraud.

Corporate governance mechanisms and the performance of Malaysian listed firms

In the aftermath of the Asian Financial crisis in 1997/1998, the Malaysia Securities Commission (SC) issued the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance in 2000 (MCCG 2000). It was subsequently revised in 2007 following the Enron and Transmile debacles. In 2012, the SC issued the latest MCCG 2012 which introduced several new recommendations that are in line with developments in other parts of the world. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the structure of the board and its activities on firm performance post MCCG 2007. The study also aims to shed light on the effectiveness of the board of directors since the issuance of MCCG 2000 and of MCCG 2007. It also aims to reveal the preparedness of listed firms in Malaysia to embrace MCCG 2012. Using a population of non-finance listed firms for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 financial years, it was found that board independence, chief executive officer (CEO) duality, directors’ busyness, nomination committee independence, the establishment of a risk management committee (RMC) and board meetings are not associated with firm performance, i.e. Tobin’s q. However, the market appears to be in favour of a larger board size. As for return on assets (ROA), it is not associated with board independence, board size, directors’ busyness and nomination committee independence. On the other hand CEO duality and the establishment of a RMC improve ROA, while board meetings are detrimental to ROA. It can therefore be concluded that board independence is not associated with either Tobin’s q or ROA. Hence, any corporate governance reforms should not over-emphasize the representation of independent directors on the board, rather the focus might be shifted to board activities, such as board meetings and the establishment of a RMC. With regard to board size, since the market is in favour of a larger board size, firms should increase the board’s size to enable the appointment of women directors to the board. Finally, combining the CEO and board chairman roles should not be disallowed as the market views this favourably. Hence, the ‘one-hat approach’ does not appear to be applicable in the case of CEO duality.

Impact of climate change on food security in Malaysia: economic and policy adjustments for rice industry

Rice paddies production in Malaysia, as in other parts of the world, is extremely vulnerable to weather changes and extreme conditions such as drought and flooding. Such situations forced Malaysia to maintain a protectionist regime with respect to its rice industry to better ensure food security for the country. In this study, a crop simulation model (DSSAT) and system dynamics approach were used to assess the impact of climate change on future rice production, self-sufficiency level of rice, and farmers’ gross income in Malaysia. Results from the DSSAT model show that during the main and off growing seasons, increase in temperature and changes rainfall pattern can be expected to reduce the rice yield by 12 and 31.3%, respectively, until the year 2030. Based on the system dynamics’ results, the reduction in rice yield was expected to reduce farmers’ gross income and the rice self-sufficiency level of the country. The study suggested two different policy scenarios to overcome these adverse effects. The overall policy implication is that the Malaysian rice industry cannot be sustained if government takes no action to change its current policies.

Understanding the pressure on agriculture land as a safeguard for food security in Malaysia

The utmost and continuing challenge facing the agriculture world is to produce enough food to feed the growing world population. Food security is inextricably linked to a community’s access to land. Without land, there is no opportunity to improve agricultural practices, produce enough food and generate incomes. What worries more is that at present our country has to rely on the supply of imported food. Providing there are no crises or disasters in the Asia region then we can rest assure of the supply. That is the reason why the pressure put on agricultural land should be the main concern of all responsible parties, as it is the heart of our national domestic food production. Eventually, securing for food security is the only one dimension in protecting agricultural land. Agricultural land or sometimes referred to as ‘rural amenities’ is important as it provides scenic, wildlife, recreation and open space that gives benefits to society. Thus, this paper endeavors to comprehend the state of food security by analyzing the factors that lead to the pressure put on the agriculture land particularly in relation to the agricultural land revolution.

Shari’ah Issues in Short Selling and its Potential Implementation in Qatar Stock Exchange

Through surveying the literature to examine the impact of short selling on stock markets, we found that most journal articles and research papers are strongly in favor of short selling. The finance literature claims that short selling is important for a well-functioning financial market because it offers number of advantages which include efficient price discovery, better market liquidity, and enhance risk management. We showed that these claims are not accurate, and that these studies are attempting to promote the practice of short selling despite its negative impact. The practice of short selling is still a subject of debate especially among Shari’ah scholars where they are still divided on its legitimacy. The paper provided an insight into this debate by investigating various Shari’ah aspects of short selling, and we found that this financial tool does not comply with Shari’ah principles. Since Shari’ah scholars do not permit short selling, some institutions and hedge funds claim offering Shari’ah compliant short selling alternatives. In this paper, we outlined four approaches based on Ijarah, Salam, Arbun, and Wa’d structures as alternatives to conventional short selling. Based on our analysis of the mechanism of each structure, we found that all the structures involve unresolved Shari’ah issues. Malaysia claims offering short selling that complies with Shari’ah principles, we therefore discussed the short selling as applied in Malaysia to examine its compliance with Shari’ah principles. The Shari’ah Advisory Council (SAC) of Malaysian Securities Commission resolved that Securities Borrowing and Lending (SBL) should be aligned to Ijarah principles in order for SBL to comply with Shari’ah principles. The SAC used the principle of Istihsan based on Maslahah as an exception to the general principles of Ijarah to justify the use of short selling in its Islamic Capital Market. The principle of Istihsan based on ‘UrfKhas, that is, a customary practice accepted in economic activities, was also used by the SAC as a basis for the permissibility of SBL. We showed that there is no maslahah to the market or the society from applying short selling as claimed by the SAC. Moreover, such use to the concept of Istihsan based on Maslahah to legalize what serves the benefit of some groups could dampen the credibility of Islamic finance.

Examining the Policy Agenda on Food Security: A Question of Food Availability in Malaysia

Food security implies the ability of the country to ensure a stable supply for domestic consumption. To achieve that, the Malaysian Federal Government has to allocate a certain percentage of the national budget for food production. Within this framework, this article attempts to examine policies regarding food security in Malaysia. Since the Malaysian government initiated agricultural policies to provide sustainable food production, the percentage of budgetary allocation for food has varied substantially over the years. Prior to the establishment of the industrial policy, the budgetary allocation for food related policies was quite high. However, the influence of global warming as well as a series of catastrophic events in food producing nations such as Thailand and Australia has forced Malaysia to relook at its food security agenda. Using a content analysis method, based on the documents of the Malaysia economic development plans, this paper first explores government policies on food and agriculture. Then, the paper examines how these policies affect the balance of trade in regards to food availability in terms of three major commodities (rice, fruit, and vegetables). Finally, the researchers analyze the future direction of Malaysia in regards to the food security agenda focusing on food availability. It is hopeful that the recommendations will help policymakers formulate agricultural policies which can help the country to sustain its food production and at the same time protect the country from any unforeseen circumstances relating to food security issues.

Rice Industry in Malaysia: Challenges, Policies and Implications

Rice is the second most important crop in the world after wheat, with Asia being the largest producer and consumer. The National Agrofood Policy of Malaysia, 2011-2012 (Dasar Agromakanan Negara, DAN) had highlighted that local rice production should be increased to ensure the country'sdemand in future. However, to what extend this ensures food security in Malaysia was not supported empirically so far. The objective of this study is to estimate the future need of rice industry in Malaysia based on past performances. Using polynomial curve on historical production, consumption, export and import values from 1963 to 2013, this study has projected the production and consumption value for the 19-year period between 2012 and 2030. The results had revealed an increasing demand for rice with declining supply can be only off-set by import of rice in future.

Combating Smuggling in Persons: A Malaysia Experience

Malaysia continues to face various challenges derived from the widespread of international migratory movement because of various economic reasons. Malaysia strategic geographical location, in the center of the South East Asian region made the country an attractive destination for human smuggling and trafficking in persons activities. Some of the smuggled persons may end up being trafficked victims base on the definition adopted by Malaysian laws on “trafficked victims”. Malaysia Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 (Amendment 2010) affords continuous protection for “smuggled turn trafficked” victims. On the other hand, smuggling is an offence under the said law because it threatens not only the public safety but also the national security. For the same reason smuggling also should be seen as a threat to Malaysia security and justifies for stern consideration and actions. Constant reviews on the loop-holes in the legal provisions and the available mechanism will minimize the possible injustice that may incur while enforcing the said Act.This paper will draw on the challenges faced by Malaysia government in combating and preventing smuggling activities, and by making these efforts will strengthen the country peace and security.

Modelling of food security in Malaysia

Food security policy in Malaysia is largely about ensuring the availability, accessibility and utilization of rice to the society. To this end, three policy objectives were set since 1970s, namely: to ensure high price to paddy farmers to produce rice, to achieve a certain level of self-sufficiency in rice and to ensure a stable and high quality of rice to the consumers. To ensure these three-pronged objectives are met, the government has embarked on a protectionist regime to ensure the sector is insulated from the market vagaries particularly supply and price shocks. The instruments implemented include; price control (farm and retail), subsidies and income transfer, licensing and import monopoly. The interventions are deep and extensive in that the industry is highly distorted and begun to show some rigidities and inefficiencies. After the successful Green Revolution in the 1970s, paddy productivity has been slowing down in terms of annual rate of change. By 1990s, the chemical intensive culture introduced by the Green Revolution had started taking a toll. Evidences of reduction of soil fertility and water quality were rampant. While the other parts of the world are experiencing technological advances in paddy farming, Malaysia’s farmers remain conventional in their practices due to poor extension services. Hence, this study attempts to rectify these problematic and complex situation by proposing the need for more R&D (Research and Development) for higher yielding varieties, application of bio-fertilisers and new approach of extension (through farmer field schools). Towards these ends, the study has adopted the system dynamics methodology to capture the circular causality between variables in the paddy and rice system as well as delays and non-linearities. The findings suggest that gradual transition to bio-fertilizers, funding for R&D for development of high yielding hybrid rice and increasing the cropping intensity hold big promise towards productivity enhancement. The promotion of training and extension services using participatory approach of learning by doing or the farmer field schools is desirable to reduce the productivity gaps.

The economic impact of climate change on food security in Malaysia

This study estimates the economic impact of climate change on food security in Malaysia. The contingent valuation technique is employed on 456 randomly selected households in the vicinities of Selangor Darul Ehsan. The study finds that climate change mitigation programmes to ensure food security are important. The public is willing to pay extra rice price in substitution of a rice subsidy reduction impact for the mitigation programmes. More specifically, the study ascertains that households on average are willing to pay 25% more for rice in replace of the subsidy reduction impact. This value conveys a total economic value of MYR557 million per annum, based on the total annual rice consumption of Malaysians who are willing to pay for the rice subsidy reduction impact. This substantial value may help give directions to the policy makers to draft more responsible food security and climate change mitigation bills in the future.

Issues and Challenges Facing Rice Production and Food Security in the Granary Areas in the East Coast Economic Region (ECER), Malaysia

This study is an effort to explore and investigate the issues and challenging are facing rice production and food security in Malaysia. It is also to identify the contribution of the granary areas in East Coast Economic Region (ECER) to the national food security. The important of rice as a staple food crop of Malaysia and is grown on 673,745 ha of land, producing annually 2.6 million tons of paddy grain valued at RM 2 billion, which is contribute with average growth rate of 3.7% of year, in the last five years. However, the current country’s self-sufficiency level for rice production is about 71.4% and the balance imported from countries abroad. Efforts are being undertaken by government to increase the productivity, cropping intensity prediction and crop acreage to cope with the growing demand for the produce. This study examines the various issues of rice production for food security and analyses the challenging of rice production in Malaysia. Various policies, strategies and programmes for rice production will be thoroughly analysed for attaining the study objectives. In the ECER, Kemubu Agricultural Development Authority (KADA), Kemasin Semerak and North Terengganu (KETARA) Integrated Agriculture Development Area (IADA) is among the granary areas, which emphasised on paddy cultivation to the country. The role of the area is important to enhance the self-sufficiency level of rice in Malaysia. Issues and challenges related to rice production, food security and self-sufficiency are discussed. Various efforts and government intervention have been implemented to ensure that these areas will remain as the important granary area. Several approaches to improve the productivity and stability of food production as well as outlining the agenda to ensure the country food supply are discussed.

An Econometric Analysis of Food Security and Related Macroeconomic Variables in Malaysia: A Vector Autoregressive Approach (VAR)

Food security is a concept originated in the mid-1970s. According to the definition of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food security is a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. At the national level, food security is a situation whereby a country is able to cover the food requirements of its population on a continuous and stable basis. Malaysia, although a middle income country, has been a net food importer in the last four decades. In fact, the country has grown to depend more on imports for most important food especially rice. With these trends lurking, understanding the determinants of food security is important because it will help the policy makers keep abreast of the main variables for food security in Malaysia. This paper thus analyse the dynamic relationship between selected macroeconomic variables (biodiesel production, exchange rate, government expenditure on rural development, Malaysia's GDP, food price index and Malaysia's population) and food security in Malaysia using VAR approach. The variance decomposition also shows that biodiesel production, exchange rate and government expenditure on rural development variables will give the highest shock to food security in year ten. Whereas exchange rate and population in year five and finally GDP in year six. This model is a useful tool and reacts as an effort to better understand how food security reacts and is affected by the integration of domestic and global markets. It could also provide a more quantitative means of assessing food security, and in particular to pinpoint specific variables that explain the highest shock to food security at the national level. It would also benefit to consumers and policy makers.